Post by Mike Andrews on Apr 15, 2020 13:45:29 GMT -5

Hi everybody, hope you are all staying safe! While I had seen bits and pieces of it quite often, I always regretted that I never found the opportunity to sit down and watch the entire documentary Baseball by Ken Burns (side note: it's like 18 hours long). Trying to rectify that during these interesting times because it's available for free on PBS. I have not regretted it - it really hits you in the gut and illustrates why baseball is so great. The downside is that it is making me miss baseball more. Here are my favorite quotes from part one, 1st Inning: Our Game ...

"It is the American game -- that's just what it is. And actually it makes you -- me, I'm 81 -- but I can feel like I'm 15 when I'm talking baseball, (when) I'm watching baseball. This is it - it does this, can do this to any man. It brings you back." - Buck O'Neil

In the late 1800s, sporting goods executive Albert Spalding persuaded club owners that each position player should have his own distinctive garb, specific to the position. The result was chaos. A Chicago sportswriter said the team "looked like a Dutch bed of tulips." The experiment was quickly abandoned.

"What must be the contempt of those who would degrade our national game and make it a business? When such becomes the case, farewell to baseball ... the game itself will surely die out." - Hot take by the Philadelphia City Item, in reference to baseball players first getting paid in 1866, prior to which time all players were amateurs.

"Americans have always had a wonderful aversion to excesses of honesty. And baseball has always been able to express that. The sense in baseball is that the reason that they put those four umpires out there is to enforce the rules. But if you can get outside the rules and outside the umpires, it is a very reasonable question to ask whether you might be allowed to do it." - Thomas Boswell

Post by Mike Andrews on Apr 17, 2020 14:38:33 GMT -5

Favorite Quotes from Inning 2: Something Like a War

There’s a lot of wonderful stillness in baseball that I love, mini-seconds of stillness. When the pitcher has got the sign, the batter is crouched, the ballplayers all lean forward with their hands on their knees, and then, very shortly, the ball is delivered. But in that tiny period when the pitch and the fever of the crowd is tangible, there’s a moment of absolute stillness that I treasure. - Donald Hall, poet

In reference to Christy Mathewson: He took a scientific approach to his work, carefully cataloging his pitches. His fastball could arrive with an inward, an outward, or an upward shoot, he once explained. He also threw a slowball, a drop curve, an out curve, a rise ball, a spitball, and the fallaway, what pitchers later called the screwball. Mathewson went on to record three shutouts in six days to lead the New York Giants to the 1905 World Series championship.

Walter Johnson hurled the ball so fast that one batter left the box after two swings. The umpire told him he had a third swing coming. 'I know,' he said, 'and you can have the next one, it won't do me any good.' Johnson went on to win 416 games and post 2.17 ERA over 21 seasons. (Second highest career WAR of all time behind Babe Ruth).

Ty Cobb played all his career with his teeth clenched; his fists clenched - despised often by his teammates. Once, when they thought he’d lost a batting title, his own teammates sent a telegram of congratulations to the man who beat him.

I think baseball is a great support to people who have emotional voids, gaps, emotional difficulties. That is to say: all of us. Those parts of us that don’t function well. Those parts of us that are sad or depressed—not every day. They can really use baseball. It isn't just the child in a wheelchair or the shut-in senior citizen listening to the radio that needs the game. There’s part of us, part of everybody who’s a baseball fan, who needs the game at that level. - Thomas Boswell

Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 17, 2020 16:42:08 GMT -5

There’s a lot of wonderful stillness in baseball that I love, mini-seconds of stillness. When the pitcher has got the sign, the batter is crouched, the ballplayers all lean forward with their hands on their knees, and then, very shortly, the ball is delivered. But in that tiny period when the pitch and the fever of the crowd is tangible, there’s a moment of absolute stillness that I treasure. - Donald Hall, poet

In reference to Christy Mathewson: He took a scientific approach to his work, carefully cataloging his pitches. His fastball could arrive with an inward, an outward, or an upward shoot, he once explained. He also threw a slowball, a drop curve, an out curve, a rise ball, a spitball, and the fallaway, what pitchers later called the screwball. Mathewson went on to record three shutouts in six days to lead the New York Giants to the 1905 World Series championship.

Walter Johnson hurled the ball so fast that one batter left the box after two swings. The umpire told him he had a third swing coming. 'I know,' he said, 'and you can have the next one, it won't do me any good.' Johnson went on to win 416 games and post 2.17 ERA over 21 seasons. (Second highest career WAR of all time behind Babe Ruth).

Ty Cobb played all his career with his teeth clenched; his fists clenched - despised often by his teammates. Once, when they thought he’d lost a batting title, his own teammates sent a telegram of congratulations to the man who beat him.

I think baseball is a great support to people who have emotional voids, gaps, emotional difficulties. That is to say: all of us. Those parts of us that don’t function well. Those parts of us that are sad or depressed—not every day. They can really use baseball. It isn't just the child in a wheelchair or the shut-in senior citizen listening to the radio that needs the game. There’s part of us, part of everybody who’s a baseball fan, who needs the game at that level. - Thomas Boswell

I had never heard of Buck O'Neil prior to when the Ken Burns special came out in 1994, but he was clearly the star and certainly made a huge impression on me.

I was actually quite aggravated and disappointed when he fell one vote shy of making the HOF in 2006 (and he would have been the lone inductee of the Negro Leaguers to be inducted into the HOF to still be living). As it was he presented the enshrined members. It left me with a sad nose pressed against the screen type of feeling.

Buck O'Neil was an all-star 1b in the Negro League. No he wasn't Oscar Charleston, or Satchel Paige, or Josh Gibson, or Cool Papa Bell, but in my opinion he was Hall worthy. Then you look at his contributions to the game like his managing or becoming I believe, the first black scout - and he scouted and signed Ernie Banks and Lou Brock if I'm not mistaken.

I think the committee who voted fixated on his .288 lifetime BA or said, "Well, if he wasn't on Ken Burns, who would be arguing for his inclusion into the HOF?" Perhaps, but I see it this way. Buck O'Neil opened up my eyes to those wonderful players I had never known about and he made me want to know about them.

And he presented his comments that showed a love of the game that shined right through the TV.

If I could watch a ballgame with a ballplayer I'd want to watch with Buck O'Neil.

I'll get off my soapbox, but O'Neil had a very big impact on me as far as appreciation of the history and love of the game.

I'll also add it's quite obvious the Burns has a soft spot for the Brooklyn Dodgers and particularly the Red Sox, and we all know he's a Sox fan.

I'm almost convinced that he created a 10th inning just so he could tell the story of the Red Sox winning it all in 2004. Of course I would imagine some White Sox fans saying, what about us? Why don't we matter? We waited 88 years!

Post by Mike Andrews on Apr 17, 2020 17:06:41 GMT -5

Totally agree about Buck O'Neil. Very well said. He definitely shined through as the star of the first two episodes for me. His love of the game is so sincere and the way he describes it is poetic. I also found myself thinking I would have loved to have grabbed a beer at a ballgame with this dude.

Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 17, 2020 17:32:13 GMT -5

Totally agree about Buck O'Neil. Very well said. He definitely shined through as the star of the first two episodes for me. His love of the game is so sincere and the way he describes it is poetic. I also found myself thinking I would have loved to have grabbed a beer at a ballgame with this dude.

In a way, he reminds me of Johnny Pesky, who like O'Neil, has done everything there is to do in baseball.

Pesky isn't in the HOF either. Those missing war years probably play a huge role (as I think it does with Dom DiMaggio). Like O'Neil, you so think of him for all of his other contributions to the game, you can forget what a great ballplayer he was.

How in the hell does somebody draw 100 walks per year with Ted Williams coming up next in the batting order? But Pesky did it. Yes, he had no power, but he was an on-base machine, something that's forgotten today and underappeciated back then. He'd bat .300, get 200 hits and 100 walks per year in his prime while playing a key defensive position.

Likewise O'Neil was an all-star 1b in his own right in addition to everything he did.

There has to be a plaque in that HOF room for a guy like that, and while I'm glad O'Neil has the statue, I wish he could have been inducted. Same with #6.

By the way, my favorite thing O'Neil talked about was hearing that distinctive sound of the bat. I think he heard it 3 times in his career. The first time with Ruth, the second time with Josh Gibson, and that last time, with Bo Jackson. Makes you wish that Bo could have stayed healthy (and not taken that hit in football that lead to his hip problem).

One last thing on O'Neil. He has an autobiography called "I was right on Time" or something like that. I highly recommend it. Not an ounce of bitterness from O'Neil who never got a chance to play in the majors. An amazing man. I don't know if I could have had the grace and class and generosity of spirit that he had if I were in the same situation.

Post by Mike Andrews on Apr 23, 2020 11:52:14 GMT -5

Part 3: The Faith of 50 Million People. Favorite quotes:

"Baseball is thought of as this game of geometry. It’s 90 feet, it’s 60 feet … right angles, everything and all that. And then it has the strictest rules and it has the strictest history. And yet kids play it all over the place, with two bases, one base, with a car parked in the middle of where they are playing. They pay it in the street. We played in the hollow with trees for bases. We called it “The Hollow” in Lexington, Virginia. We can improvise baseball in a living room or on a New York City street, and people do every day. You can play it in the pasture, on the side of a hill. You can play baseball anywhere." - Charley McDowell

"There were only four high schools in the state of Florida which a black kid could attend. So it was mostly just elementary education – this was by design because this was all they though a black kid needed. So after I finished eighth grade I had to work. I went to work on a celery field. I was a box boy, my father was a foreman. One day I was sitting on the other side of the boxes and it was hot that day in Florida. I was sweaty and I was itching in that muck. And I said, ‘Damn, there’s got to be something better than this.’ I didn’t know my father heard me. That night my father said to me, ‘Son, I heard what you said behind those boxes.’ I thought he was going to reprimand me for saying ‘Damn,’ cause he’d never heard me say ‘Damn’ before. To tell you the truth, I doubt I’d ever said ‘Damn’ before. Instead, he said, ‘Son, there is something better. But you can’t get it here, so you have to go someplace else and get it.’ And that was one of the reasons I wanted to play baseball. I wanted to get out of that field. - Buck O'Neil

During World War I, the owners argued that baseball should be declared an essential wartime industry so that players would be exempt from the draft. It didn't work. Washington Star, July 21, 1918: "Baseball received a knockout wallop yesterday when Secretary Baker ruled players in the draft age must obtain employment calculated to aid in the successful prosecution of the war or shoulder guns and fight." ... 247 major leaguers did serve, and three were killed in action.

"September 6, 1918. Far different from any incident that has ever occurred in the history of baseball, was the great moment of the first World Series game between the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox, which came at Comiskey Park this afternoon during the seventh inning stretch. As the crowd of 19,274 spectators stood up to take the afternoon yawn, the band broke forth to the strains of The Star Spangled Banner. But the yawn was checked, as the ballplayers turned quickly about and faced the music. First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day's enthusiasm. - New York Times. The wartime crowd sang so enthusiastically that the performance was repeated at every game of the Series. From then on, the song was an integral part of the National Pastime, though it did not become the official National Anthem until 1931. The Red Sox won the World Series that year, beating the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 2. One of the Series’ stars was the young pitcher Babe Ruth, who had won both of his starts, including a masterful 1-0 shutout. It was Boston’s fourth world championship in a decade. They have never won another.

"Baseball is something more than a game to an American boy; it is his training field for life work. Destroy his faith in its squareness and honesty and you have destroyed something more; you have planted suspicion of all things in his heart. " - Kenesaw Mountain Landis, responding to the Black Sox Scandal

Post by p23w on Apr 25, 2020 8:19:37 GMT -5

Totally agree about Buck O'Neil. Very well said. He definitely shined through as the star of the first two episodes for me. His love of the game is so sincere and the way he describes it is poetic. I also found myself thinking I would have loved to have grabbed a beer at a ballgame with this dude.

Buck was all that and more. I spent an afternoon with Buck in 1971. Learned more about life and baseball in that afternoon than I had in my 20 years of life up to that point. Buck even bought me lunch when I stumped him on who got the last (professional) hit off Satchel Paige. It was Yaz (a single) in 1965. Best damn BBQ ever. One block from the Negroe HOF in Kansas.

Post by redsox04071318champs on Apr 25, 2020 10:13:51 GMT -5

Totally agree about Buck O'Neil. Very well said. He definitely shined through as the star of the first two episodes for me. His love of the game is so sincere and the way he describes it is poetic. I also found myself thinking I would have loved to have grabbed a beer at a ballgame with this dude.

Buck was all that and more. I spent an afternoon with Buck in 1971. Learned more about life and baseball in that afternoon than I had in my 20 years of life up to that point. Buck even bought me lunch when I stumped him on who got the last (professional) hit off Satchel Paige. It was Yaz (a single) in 1965. Best damn BBQ ever. One block from the Negroe HOF in Kansas.

PS. Buck thought the world of Ted. The ballplayer and the man.

That is such an awesome story. You were so fortunate to have met Buck O'Neil! I wish I could have.

Post by foreverred9 on Apr 25, 2020 20:29:15 GMT -5

Buck was all that and more. I spent an afternoon with Buck in 1971. Learned more about life and baseball in that afternoon than I had in my 20 years of life up to that point. Buck even bought me lunch when I stumped him on who got the last (professional) hit off Satchel Paige. It was Yaz (a single) in 1965. Best damn BBQ ever. One block from the Negroe HOF in Kansas.

PS. Buck thought the world of Ted. The ballplayer and the man.

Sounds like you went to Arthur Bryant's, which I would agree is the best BBQ place ever. Been there each time I've been to Kansas City, and they introduced me to burnt ends.

The Central parks are generally pretty close to each other (4 hours or less) so you can get a lot of parks in on one trip. We just drove each night after the game until we got tired, then stopped at whichever hotel was nearby. Priceline's name your price tool was great for this trip.

Ideally you'd want to start or finish in Kansas City and Minneapolis to minimize the travel but it's hard to find a 10-12 day stretch where all 10 teams are home so you might have to put in a tough drive or two to make it work. Our's was the night of the 13th where the White Sox game went to extras and ended past midnight, with a 6 hour drive needed to catch the Twins game at noon. We made it though, in time for BP.

If anyone wants to learn more about this, feel free to reach out or ask questions.

Post by chrisfromnc on Apr 26, 2020 6:35:23 GMT -5

My bucket list includes seeing a game at every MLB park. I’m only about a third of the way there, but retirement isn’t too far away and I’m certain to check off quite a few more parks after that,

A couple years ago I was watching the Sox play in Cincinnati (a gem by ERod). After the game my son and I were walking back to our hotel and met up with a woman and her husband who’d been featured on the local news the night before. She wears a crazy hat that has some representation of most, if not all of the MLB teams. She’s been to every park and it was great to hear her story as we walked along.

One of my favorite things about going to games in general is that you meet total strangers that you can immediately connect with because you have baseball fandom in common. That Cincinnati trip was a great example. We met and had fun conversations with Uber drivers, hotel employees, waiters, and lots of regular baseball fans just because we had on hats with a fancy “B” on them. Baseball brings the country together, which is a big part of why Ken Burns made this wonderful film.

Post by p23w on Apr 27, 2020 12:51:44 GMT -5

My bucket list includes seeing a game at every MLB park. I’m only about a third of the way there, but retirement isn’t too far away and I’m certain to check off quite a few more parks after that,

A couple years ago I was watching the Sox play in Cincinnati (a gem by ERod). After the game my son and I were walking back to our hotel and met up with a woman and her husband who’d been featured on the local news the night before. She wears a crazy hat that has some representation of most, if not all of the MLB teams. She’s been to every park and it was great to hear her story as we walked along.

One of my favorite things about going to games in general is that you meet total strangers that you can immediately connect with because you have baseball fandom in common. That Cincinnati trip was a great example. We met and had fun conversations with Uber drivers, hotel employees, waiters, and lots of regular baseball fans just because we had on hats with a fancy “B” on them. Baseball brings the country together, which is a big part of why Ken Burns made this wonderful film.

Absolutely positively don't miss PNC park (Pittsburgh). Get there early and have lunch (and watch BP) at the steakhouse in deep LCF. Great setting, great sight lines real baseball people. Tip., for complimentary beverage of your choice, start a conversation about the 1960 World Series.

Post by Mike Andrews on May 1, 2020 12:53:29 GMT -5

"Baseball is a human enterprise. Therefore, by definition, it's imperfect, it's flawed, it doesn't embody perfectly everything that's worthwhile about our country or about our culture. But it comes closer than most things in American life. And maybe this story, which is probably apocryphal, gets to the heart of it: An Englishman and an American are having an argument about something that has nothing to do with baseball. It gets to the point where it's irreconcilable, to the point of exasperation, and the American says to the Englishman, Ah, screw the king! And the Englishman is taken aback, thinks for a minute and says, Well, screw Babe Ruth! Now think about that. The American thinks he can insult the Englishman by casting aspersions upon a person who has his position by virtue of nothing except for birth; nothing to do with personal qualities, good, bad or otherwise. But who does the Englishman think embodies America? Some scruffy kid who came from the humblest of beginnings, hung out as a six-year-old behind his father's bar; a big, badly flawed, swashbuckling palooka, who strides with great spirit — not just talent, but with a spirit of possibility and enjoyment of life across the American stage. That's an American to the Englishman. You give me Babe Ruth over any king who's ever sat on the throne and I'll be happy with that trade."

-Bob Costas

"Harry Frazee became the owner of the Red Sox in 1917, and before long he sold off all of our best players and ruined the team. Sold them all to the Yankees - Ernie Shore, Duffy Lewis, Dutch Leonard, Carl Mays, Babe Ruth. Then Wally Schang and Herb Pennock and Joe Dugan and Sam Jones. I was disgusted. The Yankee dynasty of the 20s was three-quarters of the Red Sox of a few years before. All Frazee wanted was the money"

-Harry Hooper

"Baseball on the radio is part of the background music of America. That's basic! In a small town in a barbershop on a Saturday there's a ballgame in the background, it goes without saying. You may be having a discussion of somebody's herd of cattle or some professor talking, where I grew up, about the exam he's going to give, and the barber telling vaguely dirty jokes, but in the background of all that is a ballgame. That's basic. Of course."

- Charley McDowell

Faced with a weak team, the St. Louis Cardinals General Manager Branch Rickey resolved that rather than try to pay for stars he would simply grow his own. The result was the farm system, minor league teams linked together and run purely to produce stars for the big time. ... The Farm System was a spectacular success. Soon Rickey had 800 players under contract on 32 teams, and every other major league club soon followed his lead. He would say that 'there is quality in quantity.'”

Post by Chris Hatfield on May 1, 2020 13:38:15 GMT -5

Faced with a weak team, the St. Louis Cardinals General Manager Branch Rickey resolved that rather than try to pay for stars he would simply grow his own. The result was the farm system, minor league teams linked together and run purely to produce stars for the big time. ... The Farm System was a spectacular success. Soon Rickey had 800 players under contract on 32 teams, and every other major league club soon followed his lead. He would say that 'there is quality in quantity.'”

DEAR MLB OWNERS

"We really don't need the whole commercial break/warm-up routine every time a new reliever comes into the game. It certainly made sense in 1884 when they only switched pitchers when the starter was attacked by pickaxe or caught consumption, and no reliever was warming up because he was busy gambling and drinking." - JD

Post by Mike Andrews on May 7, 2020 15:32:00 GMT -5

Just finished Part 5, which focused on the 30s, including a heavy focus on the Negro Leagues. Great stuff. My favorite quotes:

“Things change so fast in the United States. All of us have had the experience, even by the time we’re 40, of going back to the place where we grew up and finding out that everything has changed. Something about baseball seems to tie us into that change, or to link us and to carry us across the decades and the times. As the new players come up, and the old formerly-new players become old, there’s a kind of continuity to it that we don’t find in our neighborhoods -- where the old factory is torn down and a supermarket goes up, and then then supermarket is torn down, and condominiums go up. And baseball, for all its changes, continues - three strikes are still an out.”

-Donald Hall, poet

“On the mound, one rueful batter remembered, Satchel Paige threw fire. He had a whole arsenal of distinctive pitches: his Bee Ball, Jump Ball, Trouble Ball, Long Tom, his Hesitation Pitch. ‘Number one, that's a fastball, he'd call that his Midnight Rider. The changeup, he'd call that the Four-Day Creeper' (Sammie Haynes, catcher). He kicked his leg impossibly high before pitching, then he'd throw around that foot. Half the guys, one victim remembered, were hitting at that foot coming up. They rarely hit the ball at all. When playing hometown teams, Paige liked to guarantee to strike out the first nine men up. Then he would call in the outfield and make good on his promise. … Because black baseball was played in so many places, and because few black teams had the money to pay someone to keep score, no one knows precisely how many games he won. Paige himself estimated that he pitched in 2,500 games and won 2,000 of them — four times the major league record."

- Ken Burns

"They say that we were not organized. We were organized. We had two leagues, we had a 140-game schedule. We played an All-Star game every year in Chicago, we had sellouts, we had a World Series at the end of every season. If that's no organized, I don't know what organized is."

- Anonymous Negro League Player

"I came to feel, that if I, as a Jew, hit a home run, I was hitting one against Hitler."

- Hank Greenberg, who hit 58 home runs in 1938, chasing Babe Ruth's record. Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia the day after the 1938 regular season ended.

"For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

Post by Mike Andrews on May 15, 2020 10:18:09 GMT -5

13 hours in -- Part 6 focused on the 1940s, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, and the passing of Babe Ruth.

"Not ever. Never a thought ... Hell, I'm gonna play ... If I couldn't hit .400 all the way, I didn't deserve it." - Ted Williams, when asked whether he wanted to sit for the last day of the 1941 season to preserve his .400 average. He went 6-for-8 in the double-header and ended up hitting .406. No one has hit .400 since.

"I think that losing is what baseball is all about in the end. We think it's about winning, but as we go on as fans, and as even as players, you discover that there's much more losing in it. After all, the better only succeeds one-third of the time, at best. This runs very deeply in baseball. As the season goes along, the fans realize that their hopes are not going to be fulfilled. Once again they're going to be heartbroken in the end." - Roger Angell, referencing Boston fans after the loss in the 1945 World Series.

"The one thing that we weren't sure of was that Jackie could hold his temper. Jackie had a terrific temper. He knew how to fight and he would fight. If Jackie could hold down that temper, he could do it. He knew he had the whole black race, so to speak, on his shoulders. So he just said 'I could take it, I can handle it, I will take it for the rest of the country and the guys.' And that's why he took all that mess. And it killed him." - Sammie Haynes

“You can almost divide American history in the 20th century into before Robinson and after Robinson. America was defined by baseball. This was our national game. So the drama of this moment of Robinson coming in is enormous because of the game being tied to the national character – in some way the game being tied to America’s sense of its mission and its destiny.” - Gerald Early

Post by Mike Andrews on May 23, 2020 9:16:05 GMT -5

Part 7 was called "The Capital of Baseball" largely focusing on New York City's dominance in the late 40s and 1950s. And some on Ted Williams.

"I love the game because I grew up in New York City in the late 1940s and 50s, which is the greatest intersection of baseball and place in history. We had three major league teams, all of them were great. Between 1947 and 1956, a New York team was in the World Series every year and won." - Stephen Jay Gould, recalling that 14 of the 20 pennants in the 50s were won by New York teams.

"90% of hitting is mental. The other half is physical" - Yogi Berra

"There's a long drive ... it's gonna be, I believe ... The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands! The Giants win the pennant and they're going crazy! They're going crazy! I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it! Bobby Thomson hit a line drive into the lower deck of the left-field stands and this blame place is going crazy! The Giants! Horace Stoneham has got a winner! The Giants won it by a score of 5 to 4, and they're picking Bobby Thomson up, and carrying him off the field." - New York Giants Broadcaster Russ Hodges, calling the Shot Heard 'Round the World, arguably the most famous call of all time.

Marine Corps Colonel: "Captain Williams,I want to give you these orders, they relieve you from active duty in the Marine Corps Reserve and assign you to your home. Ted, I understand that your future address is Fenway Park, is that correct?" Ted Williams: "Well, as of now, that's where I'm scheduled to go, Colonel. I plan on being up there tomorrow, and needless to say I'm anxious to see if I can still hit. With the young club the Red Sox have, if I can swing a bat at all, maybe I can help the team. I certainly hope so." After returning from missing three seasons for military service, in which he won three medals of valor. He hit a home run on the day he returned. For the season he hit .342/.497/.667 with 38 home runs. Led the league in runs, walks, total bases, OBP, SLG, and OPS and won the MVP.

"What can ya say, he was as great as there was. He could run, he could throw, he could hit for power. If there was a guy that was born to play baseball, it was Willie Mays." -Ted Williams

“Moments have a tendency, I think, to relate to your age. I was more impressionable when I first started, therefore the wins and the losses, the euphoria was great, the depression was deeper. I think now I take things in stride, I put them in the proper perspective. Maybe a moment in time, a happy moment, would be 1955 because I knew this team, I knew their frustrations. I had grown up with them even though I wasn’t working with them. The Brooklyn Dodgers had lost to the Yankees in ’41, they had lost to them in ’47, they had lost to them in ’49, they had lost to them in ’52, they had lost to them in ’53. And it was just, oh, you know, gosh. But in ’55, they did the remarkable. They won it. And I was the one who was able to say on television, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world.’ And that’s all I said. Not another word. And all winter, people said to me, ‘How could you have been so calm in such a tremendous moment?’ Well, I wasn’t. I could not have said another word without breaking down in tears.” -Vin Scully

Billy Crystal, on when the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles: "It was like your uncle died. It was a death in the family. I wasn't really a Dodger fan, but you liked that they were there, because there was tremendous talent on that team. Jackie, Pee Wee, Gil, Duke, and Roy. We beat them pretty much every year but... it was like a death in the family, and then complicated by the fact that the Giants had left. So two good spirits had left New York and, it was sad time. I felt bad about it, because I thought, "If they could leave, if baseball could leave, you know... what's next?""

Post by p23w on May 23, 2020 17:51:06 GMT -5

I grew up on Long Island in the 50-60's. Could care nothing about the Polo grounds. Ebbets field was a dump. Yankee stadium was chock full of obnoxious low lifes ( I had my car smeared with feces in the early 70's... had Mass tags at the time.)The Giants moved to another very forgettable stadium in SF. O'Malley forcibly removed hispanic squatters living in tin shacks in Pasadena. Romanticize all you want. I never missed either National League team.. then they built Shea stadium over a garbage Landfill. And in all this nomention of the Yankee "extended" roster in Kansas City. Burns cherry picks for his audience. That's his m.o.

Post by philsbosoxfan on May 23, 2020 21:45:02 GMT -5

I grew up on Long Island in the 50-60's. Could care nothing about the Polo grounds. Ebbets field was a dump. Yankee stadium was chock full of obnoxious low lifes ( I had my car smeared with feces in the early 70's... had Mass tags at the time.)The Giants moved to another very forgettable stadium in SF. O'Malley forcibly removed hispanic squatters living in tin shacks in Pasadena. Romanticize all you want. I never missed either National League team.. then they built Shea stadium over a garbage Landfill. And in all this nomention of the Yankee "extended" roster in Kansas City. Burns cherry picks for his audience. That's his m.o.

That seems a bit unfair. Realistically, working for their customer base is pretty much the MO of any white color profession. Producers, writers, attorneys, accountants, teachers, realtors. This seems like a "Liar, Liar" viewpoint, every documentary doesn't need to be an exposé.

Post by p23w on May 25, 2020 20:00:58 GMT -5

I grew up on Long Island in the 50-60's. Could care nothing about the Polo grounds. Ebbets field was a dump. Yankee stadium was chock full of obnoxious low lifes ( I had my car smeared with feces in the early 70's... had Mass tags at the time.)The Giants moved to another very forgettable stadium in SF. O'Malley forcibly removed hispanic squatters living in tin shacks in Pasadena. Romanticize all you want. I never missed either National League team.. then they built Shea stadium over a garbage Landfill. And in all this nomention of the Yankee "extended" roster in Kansas City. Burns cherry picks for his audience. That's his m.o.

That seems a bit unfair.

Not really. it was a real time POV from someone who lived during the period and location of this episode.

Realistically, working for their customer base is pretty much the MO of any white color profession. Producers, writers, attorneys, accountants, teachers, realtors. This seems like a "Liar, Liar" viewpoint, every documentary doesn't need to be an exposé

I agree, and said so in my post. I have other issues with this documentary which I disagree with based on my own knowledge and study of the game. I was in touch with Burns and his researcher (Norwick?) in 1994. Following several correspondences, I pulled back from sharing. I had the acute sense that Burns had his agenda fairly well set and was in no mood to change. His prerogative. The finished product was well received. I think you are way off target with your "Liar, Liar" observation. There is a subtle difference between a "Feel good" and an "expose" Burns crafted a "Feel Good" product which had a wide audience and acceptance.

Post by Mike Andrews on May 28, 2020 13:23:17 GMT -5

Part 8 focused on the 1960s.

"Well, a little while ago, when we mentioned that this one, in typical fashion, was going right to the wire, little did we know... Art Ditmar throws—here's a swing and a high fly ball going deep to left, this may do it!... Back to the wall goes Berra, it is...over the fence, home run, the Pirates win! Ladies and gentlemen, Mazeroski has hit a one-nothing pitch over the left field fence at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of ten to nothing!... Once again, that final score... The Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1960 world champions, defeat the New York Yankees. The Pirates ten, and the Yankees nine!... and Forbes Field... is an insane asylum!" - Chuck Thompson's call of the final play of the 1960 World Series.

"He was genius. Perhaps the only pitcher I have ever seen, and certainly broadcast, where after one batter I would think, he might pitch a no-hitter tonight .. the only one, he was the only one who would go out to warm-up and he would get applause like a symphony conductor who had just walked onstage. It was such respect as well as admiration. I don't think we'll see his likes for a long time." - Vin Scully on Sandy Koufax

"Almost against my will, I got back to Fenway Park. Somehow it felt disloyal to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but is seemed crazy to let this love affair with baseball go on the rest of my life and never enjoy another team. So reluctantly, in 1967, the perfect time, I started going back to Fenway Park, and then that whole season took place, and it was such a miracle at first. They had been in 9th place the year before, and they had has this Impossible Dream of a year. At first I didn't see the similarities between the Red Sox and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I thought I had found a winner, finally! But then the similarities set in." - Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Dear Mr. Kuhn: After twelve years in the Major Leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several states. It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia Club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decisions. I, therefore, request that you make known to all the Major League Clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season. Sincerely yours, Curt Flood"

Post by redsox04071318champs on May 28, 2020 13:27:04 GMT -5

"Well, a little while ago, when we mentioned that this one, in typical fashion, was going right to the wire, little did we know... Art Ditmar throws—here's a swing and a high fly ball going deep to left, this may do it!... Back to the wall goes Berra, it is...over the fence, home run, the Pirates win! Ladies and gentlemen, Mazeroski has hit a one-nothing pitch over the left field fence at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of ten to nothing!... Once again, that final score... The Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1960 world champions, defeat the New York Yankees. The Pirates ten, and the Yankees nine!... and Forbes Field... is an insane asylum!" - Chuck Thompson's call of the final play of the 1960 World Series.

"He was genius. Perhaps the only pitcher I have ever seen, and certainly broadcast, where after one batter I would think, he might pitch a no-hitter tonight .. the only one, he was the only one who would go out to warm-up and he would get applause like a symphony conductor who had just walked onstage. It was such respect as well as admiration. I don't think we'll see his likes for a long time." - Vin Scully on Sandy Koufax

"Almost against my will, I got back to Fenway Park. Somehow it felt disloyal to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but is seemed crazy to let this love affair with baseball go on the rest of my life and never enjoy another team. So reluctantly, in 1967, the perfect time, I started going back to Fenway Park, and then that whole season took place, and it was such a miracle at first. They had been in 9th place the year before, and they had has this Impossible Dream of a year. At first I didn't see the similarities between the Red Sox and the Brooklyn Dodgers. I thought I had found a winner, finally! But then the similarities set in." - Doris Kearns Goodwiny "Dear Mr. Kuhn: After twelve years in the Major Leagues, I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes. I believe that any system which produces that result violates my basic rights as a citizen and is inconsistent with the laws of the United States and of the several states. It is my desire to play baseball in 1970, and I am capable of playing. I have received a contract offer from the Philadelphia Club, but I believe I have the right to consider offers from other clubs before making any decisions. I, therefore, request that you make known to all the Major League Clubs my feelings in this matter, and advise them of my availability for the 1970 season. Sincerely yours, Curt Flood"

Don't exactly know why but I love the music choices of Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly when they show the astrodome and I love the choice of Summer in the City by John Sebastian (also sang the catchy Welcome Back Kotter theme song) and the Love Spoonful when filming Yaz's clutch hit in the final game of the 1967 regular season

Post by p23w on May 28, 2020 21:38:26 GMT -5

Don't exactly know why but I love the music choices of Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly when they show the astrodome and I love the choice of Summer in the City by John Sebastian (also sang the catchy Welcome Back Kotter theme song) and the Love Spoonful when filming Yaz's clutch hit in the final game of the 1967 regular season

ITA. Music accompaniment was top shelf. I still tear up when I hear the letter home from Sullivan Ballou on the eve of his death in Burns' Civil War. Never knew the violin could exude such emotion.

Post by Mike Andrews on Jun 5, 2020 11:50:47 GMT -5

Part 9 is in the books, after roughly 20 hours of content. This was the last part of the documentary that came out in 1994. There is a two-part supplement called the Tenth Inning which came out in 2004, I'm going to move onto that next. But the main doc had many stories that I didn't remember, and many topics that continue to be very apt to today. Highly recommend it if you're looking to fill the baseball void. Here are my favorites from Part 9:

“There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey's drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.” ― Jackie Robinson

"When you're a little kid (here in the US), the first thing they buy you is a little toy car. But when you're born Dominican, you get a glove and a bat. It's like a religion, you have to play." - Ralph Gonzales, George Washington High School

"My best pitch? It's a strike. A sinking fastball that you grip like this, so you get only two seams into it, and if you turn your hand a little bit like this, the wind pushes here and forces it down and away from a right-handed hitter. Thereby he thinks it's a good pitch, but at the last minute it sinks, he hits the top half of the ball, and he hits a ground ball to Burleson. Burleson picks it up, throws it to Yastrzemski, one away. You do that three times, or 27 times in a ballgame - you make perfect sinkers, and you'll get 27 outs. Unless the hitters are smart, and then they know it's a sinker, they get up and drive the ball to right center field between Lynn and Evans, and that's called a double. And then the pitcher has to run behind third base and back it up. Hopefully they get the guy out at third, or it's a triple. Then you got a runner at third with less than two outs, so they bring the infield in, and you don't want them to hit a sinker now, you gotta strike 'em out. So then you go to a cross-seam fastball, which I don't have." -Bill Lee

"There it goes, a long drive! If it stays fair. Home run! (long pause, just crowd noise). We will have a 7th game in this 1975 World Series. Carlton Fisk becomes the first player in this Series to hit one over the Wall and into the net. Red Sox win it 7-6, in 12 innings." - Dick Stockton

"I fortunately have the objective perspective of a Yankees fan, and therefore I have come to understand the Boston pain in a way. But it's different, there are different kinds of pain. There's Chicago Cubs pain, which is never getting there at all. Boston Red Sox pain is very special. Boston Red Sox pain means getting to the very last inch again and again and again, and then missing it by that little hair. It's 1946, when Slaughter scores from first on a single. It's 1948, when they lost a one game playoff to Cleveland. It's the year of the Impossible Dream, 1967, when they get into the 7th game of the World Series and nobody could beat Bob Gibson, not Lonborg on two days' rest. It's 1975, when after winning the greatest game in the history of baseball in Carlton Fisk's home run in the 12th, they blow it in the 7th game of the World Series. It's 1978, when Bucky Dent, of all people, hits a home run, and wins the game for my guys in a single game playoff. And it's 1986, quintessentially of course, when the ball goes through Mr. Buckner's legs. Although one shouldn't blame him because that was the end of a lot of disasters. It just goes on and on, the last inch, and never consummation." -Stephen Jay Gould

"Baseball must be a great game. Because the owners haven't been able to kill it." -Bill Veeck

"Life can't all be big issues and heart surgery. You need something to give. Something has to bring joy into the day. I always thought that the six months during the baseball season, there was something that wasn't there during the other six months of the year and winter. It's not that you had to listen to the game, but that you could if you needed it." -Thomas Boswell